Founded in 1911, the Tsinghua University is located on the site of Tsinghua Garden in Beijing, the former residence of Prince Yinzhi, the third son of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty.
In 1909, the indemnity payment to the United States from the Boxer Protocol was reduced by US$10.8 million by Theodore Roosevelt's administration. The Qing imperial court used the difference to create the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Programme and established the China Institute along with a preparatory school. The school was later renamed Tsinghua School and expanded in 1925 with the addition of a college department.
Origins
The history of Tsinghua originated in the Boxer Protocol signed in 1901. The Qing dynasty had to pay war reparations amounting to US$333 million with a four percent annual interest rate in taels of fine silver to the Eight-Nation Alliance, in which the United States had a share of US$24,440,778.81. With difficulties in settling the debt, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Chinese ambassador Liang Cheng to negotiate with United States. On 5 December, Liang had the first meeting with United States Secretary of State John Hay, in which Hay proposed that the reparations exceeded the original demand from the United States, and the reduction of payment was settled. With approval from the United States Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt authorised the further reduction of the reparation down to US$13,655,492.69. The remaining difference was to be returned to China, gradually starting in January 1909 for educational programmes, and to create scholarship programmes for Chinese students to study in the United States. To honour Theodore Roosevelt for his contributions to the founding of Tsinghua University, a gymnasium on the Tsinghua campus was named Roosevelt Memorial Gymnasium.
On 11 July 1908, the document for reduction of reparation was delivered to the Qing imperial court by ambassador William Woodville Rockhill. Prince Qing responded to the United States government as follows:
Tang Shaoyi was dispatched to the United States to deliver the official letter from the Qing imperial court. The letter says:
The United States government begin to remit the difference in 1909. In May, Tenney Charles Daniel was assigned to represent the United States government in the study programme. The selection of students was finalised after a series of discussion in June, and the proposal received the imperial approval on 10 July. The office for the study programme was officially set up on 17 July. On 25 August, Zhou Ziqi and Tang Guo'an were appointed to the board of directors to run the office operations. Tsinghua Garden was transferred to the study programme office to establish the preparatory school.
Republican era
Tsinghua received a charter from the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928 and became a national university. At the onset of Second Sino-Japanese War, Tsinghua, Peking University and Nankai University moved to Changsha and formed the National Changsha Provisional University. The combined school relocated to Kunming in 1938 and was renamed as National Southwest Associated University.
Tsinghua was restored in 1946 at Tsinghua Garden. It became one of the National Key Universities of the People's Republic of China following education policy reforms starting in 1952. The National Tsing Hua University at Hsinchu, Taiwan was formed in 1956 by Tsinghua academics who fled the communist revolution.
Early PRC
In 1953, Tsinghua University established a political counselor program, becoming the first university to do so following the Ministry of Education's 1952 directive to begin piloting such programs. As political counselors, new graduates who were also Communist Party members worked as political counselors in managing the student body and student organizations, often simultaneously serving as Communist Youth League secretaries. The program was later expanded to other universities following its endorsement by Deng Xiaoping and became further institutionalized across China in the 1990s and 2000s.
During the Cultural Revolution
During the Third Front construction to develop infrastructure and industry in China's rugged interior in preparation for potential invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States, Tsinghua established a branch in Mianyang, Sichuan province.